Advertisement

Header Utility Menu

  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Events

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram Get Our App

  • Login

Virginia Business

Mobile Menu

  • Issues
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finances
    • Law
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Energy/Green
    • Federal Contracting
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels/Tourism
    • Insurance
    • Ports/Trade
    • Small Business
    • Startups
    • Technology
    • Transportation
  • Regions
    • Central Virginia
    • Eastern Virginia
    • Northern Virginia
    • Roanoke/New River Valley
    • Shenandoah Valley
    • Southern Virginia
    • Southwest Virginia
  • Reports
    • Best Places to Work
    • Business Person of the Year
    • CEO Pay
    • COVID-19
    • Generous Virginians Project
    • Legal Elite
    • Most Influential Virginians
    • Maritime Guide
    • Site Locator
    • The Big Book
    • Virginia CFO Awards
  • Company News
    • For the Record
    • People
  • Opinion
  • Lists
  • Awards/Events
    • 2022 Virginia Business Political Roundtable
    • Women in Leadership
    • Diversity Leadership Series
    • Virginia 500
    • Legal Elite
    • CFO Awards
    • Big Book of Lists
    • 100 People To Meet
    • Best Places To Work
  • Virginia 500
    • Read The Issue
    • Power Up Virginia 500
    • Buy an award plaque
    • Suggest execs for 2023

Advertisement

Header Primary Menu

  • Issues
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • Issues Archive
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finances
    • Law
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Energy/Green
    • Federal Contracting
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels/Tourism
    • Insurance
    • Ports/Trade
    • Small Business
    • Startups
    • Technology
    • Transportation
  • Regions
    • Central Virginia
    • Eastern Virginia
    • Northern Virginia
    • Roanoke/New River Valley
    • Shenandoah Valley
    • Southern Virginia
    • Southwest Virginia
  • Reports
    • Best Places to Work
    • Business Person of the Year
    • CEO Pay
    • COVID-19
    • Generous Virginians Project
    • Legal Elite
    • Most Influential Virginians
    • Maritime Guide
    • Site Locator
    • The Big Book
    • Virginia CFO Awards
  • Company News
    • For the Record
    • People
  • Opinion
  • Lists
  • Awards/Events
    • 2022 Virginia Business Political Roundtable
    • Women in Leadership
    • Diversity Leadership Series
    • Virginia 500
    • Legal Elite
    • CFO Awards
    • Big Book of Lists
    • 100 People To Meet
    • Best Places To Work
  • Virginia 500
    • Read The Issue
    • Power Up Virginia 500
    • Buy an award plaque
    • Suggest execs for 2023

Home News Industries Law Legal challenges

Legal challenges

Virginia’s law firms go virtual amid pandemic

Published February 28, 2021 by Rich Griset

Last April, Hunton Andrews Kurth debuted an online dashboard to track coronavirus-related lawsuits.
Last April, Hunton Andrews Kurth debuted an online dashboard to track coronavirus-related lawsuits.

In any other year, the merger that formed Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP would have gotten top billing in the year’s legal news. But 2020 wasn’t like any other year for the legal profession.

The pandemic’s economic fallout caused some law firms to enact cutbacks and temporary salary reductions; some senior staffers took voluntary furloughs. And what’s more, the courts ground to a halt, as the Virginia Supreme Court issued a March 2020 emergency declaration stating that no jury trials could take place anywhere in the state.

Eventually, localities would be allowed to submit reopening plans. In September 2020, circuit courts in Alleghany, Henrico and Stafford counties and Norfolk were the first to be allowed to resume jury trials; dozens of other circuit courts around the state have since received approval. Virginia’s court system is still dealing with a backlog of cases.

New allowances in the courts were made to accommodate cases during the pandemic, and technology was suddenly thrust into a greater role in the legal profession, including an expanded use of streaming video for digital hearings and depositions.

Like many other industries, law firms had to deal with a plethora of pandemic workplace issues around telecommuting, including enacting new rules and updating cybersecurity. Some firms also had to apply for Paycheck Protection Program forgivable loans. And law firms often were helping their clients navigate these issues as well.

The pandemic also impacted firms’ caseloads, as well as the types of cases they’re taking on. Amid the pandemic, firms have seen an uptick in wrongful termination cases brought by employees who say they’re wrongfully let go for complaining about COVID-19 policies. Universities also are contending with class-action lawsuits from students complaining that schools failed to deliver quality remote education or declined to grant refunds after moving classes online.

Civil rights cases have been filed related to mandated business closures. Businesses are suing insurers for denying business interruption cases. Industries that have been hit the hardest by the pandemic — such as retail, travel and hospitality — drove an increase in bankruptcy cases. And though President Joe Biden has extended the federal moratorium on evictions by executive order until at least March 31, that hasn’t stopped lawsuits from both tenants and landlords.

Delayed from its planned April 1, 2020, merger date by the pandemic, Atlanta-based law firm Troutman Sanders LLP and Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton LLP officially joined forces in July 2020 as Troutman Pepper. The firm’s Richmond office is one of the largest of Troutman Pepper’s 23 offices nationwide. With 166 attorneys and more than 250 employees statewide, Troutman Pepper is the fourth largest law firm operating in Virginia.

During the pandemic, Troutman Pepper established an online COVID-19 resource center that helped generate business for the firm.

And it isn’t alone in expanding digital efforts. Richmond’s Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP established an online interactive map and dashboard keeping track of pandemic-related lawsuits around the nation. As of Feb. 1, the tracker had identified 8,199 coronavirus-related lawsuits in America, including 95 in Virginia. Nationwide, the largest categories of complaints involved insurance, civil rights, and labor and employment.

Barry DuVal, president and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, has lobbied the General Assembly to move forward legislation that would protect employers from COVID-19-related lawsuits, as more than a dozen other states have done.

And the 2021 General Assembly session appears to have created plenty of new business opportunities for law firms around the state’s marijuana legalization efforts, including criminal history expungement.

Charts:

  • Law firms*
  • Accounting firms*
  • Lobbyists
  • Chambers of commerce

*Partial list – full lists available for purchase at VirginiaBusiness.com/lists.

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

Related Stories

No related posts.

Trending

13th annual Best Places to Work

Making strides

It’s back!

After the crisis

Fort Monroe development moving forward

Sponsored Stories

Working at Pinnacle Financial Partners

What Logistics issues will have the biggest impact on you in 2023?

In the New Year, Aim for Better Cybersecurity

4 innovative ways to create capacity

WHERE IS THE SUPPLY CHAIN WHEN YOU NEED IT?

P.A.I.N.T. Your Financial Mountain

5 Benefits of Treasury Management Services from Atlantic Union Bank

Blazing trails in the digital landscape

Advertisement

Advertisement

Trending

13th annual Best Places to Work

Making strides

It’s back!

After the crisis

Fort Monroe development moving forward

Sponsored Stories

Working at Pinnacle Financial Partners

What Logistics issues will have the biggest impact on you in 2023?

In the New Year, Aim for Better Cybersecurity

4 innovative ways to create capacity

WHERE IS THE SUPPLY CHAIN WHEN YOU NEED IT?

P.A.I.N.T. Your Financial Mountain

5 Benefits of Treasury Management Services from Atlantic Union Bank

Blazing trails in the digital landscape

Get Virginia Business directly on your tablet or in your mailbox!

Subscribe to Virginia Business

Advertisement

Advertisement

Footer Primary Menu

  • virginiabusiness.com
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Footer Secondary Menu

  • Industries
  • Regions
  • Reports
  • Company News
  • Events

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Sign Up

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram Get Our App

Privacy Policy Cookie Policy

Footer Utility Menu

Copyright © 2023 Virginia Business. All rights reserved.

Site Maintained by TechArk